Administrative Law

This course will study how the executive departments of government make and apply law. Using the material covered in the first-year "Legislation and Regulation" course as a foundation, this class will cover a variety of topics, including the legal framework (both constitutional and statutory) that governs administrative adjudication; the proper role of agencies in interpreting statutory and regulatory law; public participation in agency rulemaking; and judicial review of agency decisions. The central theme of the course is how the law manages the tension between "rule of law" values (e.g., procedural regularity, accountability, and substantive limits on arbitrary action) and the desire for flexible, effective administrative governance.